The treatment and recycling of waste water has been a significant problem resulting from production line painting processes, such as employed in the automobile and various other industries. Typically, when products are spray painted in an industrial spray booth, the products to be painted are moved along a production line in front of a waterfall that serves as a backdrop for the spray painting. The paint that does not engage and coat the product to be painted strikes the flowing water in the form of overspray and is carried downwardly and eventually to a collection tank.
Various techniques have been employed in attempts to solve the problems involved in separating the paint overspray from the water, disposing of the paint overspray, and returning the water to the spray booth for reuse in the waterfall. Inasmuch as the quantity of paint overspray is a minute proportion of the water flowing into the collection tank, the more efficient separating procedures involved a two stage process wherein a major portion of the water is removed in a first stage. The remaining watery sludge of paint solids is then pumped to a second stage filtration and consolidation apparatus, known as a consolidator, that removes the paint solids and enables recycling of the clear water for reuse in the waterfall. Also various techniques are employed, such as the addition of chemicals, to assure that the paint solids will float in a non-tacky condition on the surface of the water in the collection bank.